In Darkest Night 3: Retribution
by 1upDawg
Summary: On a field trip to the new horror attraction Fazbear's Fright, Jeremy and his friends stumble upon an unknowable room, a hidden secret about Aelita's past, and the grim reality behind the mysteries of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Can they survive long enough to unravel the truth? (Part 3 of the CL/FNAF crossover saga! Takes place during the events of Evolution.)
1. Prologue

((Disclaimer: I do NOT own Code Lyoko or FNAF, that would be MoonScoop and Scott Cawthon respectively))

 **In Darkest Night 3: Retribution**

Prologue

The old building, barely visible against the tarry black sky, illuminated only by the occasional flash of lightning, somehow retained an eerie sense of homeliness to its newfound owner. As he exited the car he glanced up at the stormy night sky, frowning. Evidently he had chosen an inconvenient time to make his return- the sounds of the rain and thunder from outside were sure to prove very distracting indeed. And Hans Ferdinand was a man who hated being distracted.

He had had enough distractions as of late, what with paperwork to fill out, messages to record for his subordinates, meetings from the world headquarters about the future of the company. Everyone who knew him or had worked with him before knew he was not one to handle this amount of pressure well. Names, dates, numbers… even the faces of his own employees were lost on him in those worst of times. To be fair, of course, that was all his own doing… _But,_ he thought furiously to himself, _if everything had only worked out from the beginning, none of this would ever have happened…_

Then, just as quickly as he had allowed his thoughts to enrage him, and his fists to nearly crumple the blueprints in his hand, he snapped out of it. _Forget about it,_ he told himself. _It's all ancient history now. So quit thinking in the past, and look to the future. You've got one last job to do, remember?_

He grumbled to himself and walked up toward the old building, wondering how he had even been assigned for the task at hand. After all, the suits in Rouen had not only left him in charge of every last bit of property on the premises, which was daunting enough to begin with, they had given him a job to do during his shift there- one that he must absolutely not fail, one that no one else must know anything about. And now, on top of all that, he had to do all this fancy, top-secret work in the middle of a thunderstorm.

It was going to be a long night.

As he stepped through the front doors of the old restaurant, a chill ran up his spine. It was more than a little macabre to think, after all, that just months ago this place shone with the light of dozens of arcade games and rang with the laughter of children. This decrepit wasteland of garbage and storage boxes was no longer the same Freddy Fazbear's Pizza the City of the Iron tower had known and loved before.

Though the old building was void of light, he immediately set off for his destination- the security room. He didn't even bother to give his blueprints a glance; he knew the way by heart now. He knew he would need the map later- they had never made the safe rooms in these places obvious to those unaffiliated with the company, that much he knew quite well. Good thing, too, for none of his business ventures seemed to go his way even without the unsuspecting world looking in on him- but again, the past was in the past, and once more his mind shifted back to the task at hand.

"Why me?" he wondered again, aloud. Why would headquarters have ever assumed that he knew anything about those damned animatronics? Sure, he had been in charge of Parts and Service back at his old position, but he had never gotten his own hands dirty with maintaining them- that was what underlings were for, after all. Still, he surmised, taking them apart should at least be much easier than fixing them. Hopefully headquarters wasn't expecting him to be neat and tidy about his work, but then again, they didn't need to know. All they needed to hear was that the job had been done, plain and simple.

With that in mind, he withdrew a crowbar from his bag and strode off to the Show Stage, with a fresh air of confidence about him. Sure enough, there they were, just as cheery and whimsical as he remembered them, Mr. Ferdinand noted. Even though the building around them had been left to rot, the animatronics that represented the face of Fazbear Entertainment had survived the restaurant's downfall remarkably well. But that wouldn't last for much longer.

Not one to waste time, the restaurant owner leapt into the fray with zest. It took longer than he could ever have anticipated, and it was, in truth, a bit disheartening. Especially when he was finished at the Show Stage and moved on to Pirate Cove- Foxy had always been his favorite of the bunch, after all. But orders were orders, and Mr. Ferdinand's loyalty to the company couldn't be matched even by his love of its own iconic characters.

Finally, it was time for the hard part. He knew, returning to the office, that scavenging the place for the "fifth one" that headquarters had implied was not going to be easy. If it weren't for the blueprints he'd been given, he doubted he would've been able to find it at all.

But as his eyes scanned the map, checking and double-checking, something unexpected happened: The office phone started ringing.

Somehow, Mr. Ferdinand didn't think anything of it at first, probably because he was used to making calls all the time back at his old position. And more than likely headquarters was just checking in, eager to hear a status report. So Mr. Ferdinand picked up the phone and uttered a nonchalant "Hello?"

" _Hello, Mr. Ferdinand. Remember me? It's been a long while…_ "

The mechanical, almost electrical voice on the other end sent another chill up his spine. "W-who is this?" he stammered.

With a thrill of terror, Mr. Ferdinand felt a hand grip him by the shoulder, and the voice of its owner and the one over the phone were one and the same as it spoke.

" _It's me…_ "


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Amongst the student body of Kadic Academy, a field trip was always cause for celebration. And for most, there would be plenty of that in store at their destination: the newly-opened Fazbear's Fright horror attraction in downtown Rouen, which claimed to host dozens of artifacts from the old pizza chain- which, by no coincidence, had folded just weeks before its grand opening.

But for Jeremy Belpois and his small circle of friends, there was seemingly only doom and gloom to be had. Just months ago, after all, XANA, the malignant, computer-generated entity he and his friends were sure they had destroyed, had returned. It was unthinkable, unfathomable, a scientific impossibility! He had witnessed the destruction of XANA before his very eyes, using the multi-agent program that Franz Hopper himself had created. Surely he had done everything right! But in spite of everything, the virus had returned in full force. Just when they thought they could all lead normal lives again, the five friends found themselves once again caught up in their double lives as Lyoko Warriors.

Life had been particularly hard on Jeremy's friend Aelita. Her father had given himself up to XANA to save her- and she had watched in horror as his digital body crumbled to code. And for what? XANA had returned anyway. It had all been for naught. And her mother… Try as she might, Aelita had always harbored a curious thought about her mother she could never quite shake. It was a hunch, perhaps, that she would one day round the corner and see her mother standing before her. She knew it was pointless; she had watched as her mother was taken away before her eyes. Right now, however, this feeling of hopelessness was overshadowed by one of annoyance, directed at a pair of eyes peering over the bus seat at Jeremy as he attempted to finish his calculus homework.

"Jeremy, you _know_ that you use delta in a boundary equation, not theta, right? It's basic algebra," its owner was telling him.

Laura Gauthier had established herself as the academy's new brainiac, even overshadowing Jeremy at times. However, due to her standoffishness and her tendency to get in the way of the warriors- even going so far as to infiltrate their hideout during a mission- she was not very well-liked among the group… especially Aelita.

"I know, thank you Laura," Jeremy sighed insouciantly.

Aelita gave her one last glare before looking back out the window. Her thoughts now turned to her destination: after all, during their old scraps with XANA, the warriors had tangled with possessed versions of the animatronics at Freddy's. There had been few missions in Lyoko that had legitimately terrified her, and these were among those elite few. Had she known where the Halloween field trip was going this year, she likely wouldn't have signed up for it. But it was too late now, she surmised, as the bus pulled up at _Fazbear's Fright_.

…

For Jeremy, the "tour" that followed turned out to be just as boring as it was cheesy. At the very least, he had been expecting displays showing the inner workings of the animatronics; something to appeal to the tech-junkie inside him. No such luck: The "museum" was a darkened building full of lame jumpscares and spooky, albeit fake looking, props. Oh well… At least he wasn't the only one miserable.

"Great, now I miss my old job," grumbled Mike Schmidt, a classmate of his friends Yumi and William, who had (until recently) been the security guard at Freddy's.

"Hey, cheer up, Mike," said William, clapping him on the back. "You're a Business Club member now! You'll find a job in no time!"

"Yeah, I guess," Mike sighed. "Probably a less cool one, though."

Jeremy rolled his eyes. Once before, he and his friends had had to protect Mike on the job in the middle of a XANA attack. Of course, Mike would have no memory of that…

A hand tapping him on the shoulder drew his attention to Odd Della Robbia. "Hey Einstein, what happened to Aelita?" he asked.

Jeremy glanced around: Aelita had indeed disappeared. He turned around and spotted the pinkette slouched in the corner of the hall, her face buried in her hands.

"What do you think worked her up this time?" asked Ulrich.

"Her father, probably," answered Yumi. "Come on, we'd better go try and cheer her back up."

When the foursome found Aelita, there were tear tracks across her face. "I-I'm sorry to worry you all," she stammered, "It's… it's just… with XANA coming back and everything we've been through…"

"Don't worry, Aelita," Jeremy reassured her. "You still have us. And that's not about to change anytime soon. Right, guys?" The other warriors nodded in agreement.

Aelita struggled to her feet. "Just… just be careful, all of you. We may have weakened him when we thought we destroyed him. But he's getting stronger every day; I can feel him! I need all of you… and I need all of you to be careful. I can't afford to lose anyone else now…"

Yumi helped her to her feet. "We will. Trust us; we've got your back, and we've all got our own as well."

"Speaking of backs, we should probably start doing some backtracking," interrupted Odd. "Jim's gonna go nuts if we all turn up missing from the tour group!"

"Yeah," agreed Ulrich. "Okay, Princess, ready to head back?"

Aelita nodded. "Yes… we should get going. From the sound of things, the tour's already made it to the next hall by now."

Indeed, the group had left without them as they had stayed behind to comfort Aelita. But, curiously, they were not alone. As they rounded the corner, they found a small, oddly pale-looking little boy, dressed in the work uniform of a Fazbear Entertainment employee. The boy could have been no older than nine years at most.

"Hello", greeted the boy. "Are you looking for your tour group? Follow me and I'll help you find them!"

On that word, the boy started down the hallway. The five friends, perplexed yet unsure of what else to do, followed him.

"Hey, kid, don't you think you're a little too, er… _young_ for a job at a place like this?" asked Odd.

The boy didn't answer, didn't even acknowledge his question, but continued walking down the hallway.

"Not very talkative, is he?" said Odd.

"Guess not," replied Ulrich. "But hey, I've seen more immature people with jobs at Freddy's before."

"Like who?"

Ulrich chuckled. "Like that time they gave you the security guard job when XANA started attacking…"

"HEY!"

"Knock it off, you two," scolded Yumi. "We're gonna be in big trouble as it is. We've been walking forever and still haven't caught back up to the tour group."

"Yeah," agreed Odd. "I hope this kid knows where he's going!"

A moment later, the boy had led them into a large, dimly lit room. Inside was a box of animatronic parts, an assortment of Fazbear Entertainment merchandise, and a row of desks lined with computers.

"Now _this_ is more like it!" said Jeremy, and he immediately made a beeline for the computers.

"Oh come on, Jeremy! Really? We're here to look at creepy robots, not computers!" groaned Ulrich.

"Yeah, I know," sighed Jeremy. "Still, these computers are pretty state-of-the-art. I must admit- this is cool." A little odd, though- what are all these high-end computers doing in a place like this?

"Hmmm… what part of the building do you suppose this is?" wondered Yumi aloud. "And where's the rest of the tour group, kid?"

To her astonishment, the boy was nowhere to be found.

"Kid…?"

The final sound that met the ears of the warriors before everything went black was the sound of someone giggling in an eerie, high-pitched voice- the voice of a child.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Jeremy's head was throbbing as he opened his eyes. The sickeningly sweet smell of some sort of gas made him wince, and there was the sensation of something hairy pressed against his leg. As he sat up, he discovered that that something was Odd's head. Propping himself up, he gave the younger boy a gentle shove.

Odd stirred. "Ugh… Jeremy? W-where are we?"

"I don't know, Odd," answered Jeremy. Then he remembered everything: Fazbear's Fright, the disappearing child, the school trip…

 _The school trip!_ Jeremy's eyes darted to his wristwatch.

"Eleven forty five!" he exclaimed. "The tour ended hours ago! How could they have left without us?"

"Oh no!" agreed Odd. "We're dead meat, Jeremy! Jim's gonna kill us all for sure!"

Suddenly, from behind them came the sounds of moans and groans. The boys spun around in a flash, only to find the rest of their friends waking up.

"Where… is this?" Aelita moaned.

"Ugh… that kid!" Yumi grumbled. "I knew there was something I didn't like about 'em. And what's that weird smell?"

Jeremy took another whiff of the mystery odor. "Halothene vapor," he announced. "Sleeping gas. So that kid led us into a dark room and knocked us out, but why didn't the group come looking for us after we disappeared? And how are we gonna get out of here?"

The room was pitch black, save only for the moonlight cast upon them through a single window. Then…

"Hey guys! I found something!" Ulrich called out.

A sliver of white light could be seen stretching across the floor from Ulrich's location.

"Well, it looks like we found a door!" said Jeremy. "Let's hope it leads to a way out of this place…"

There was a pause as Jeremy fumbled around in the dark in search of the doorknob, but finally he found it and pushed the door open. A glare of light enveloped the Lyoko warriors, and their jaws dropped to the floor.

…

The door swung open to reveal a small room, flanked on all sides by electric equipment. In the center of the room stood a small table mounted by a large computer. Several large wires snaked from the monitor down across the table, their terminus a large, circular metal disc that lay on the ground before them.

Aelita recognized it instantly. "A scanner!"

Jeremy was stunned. "H-how is this possible?" he exclaimed, flabbergasted. Fazbear animatronics possessed by XANA were one thing, but… after all this time, could this place, the very heart of Fazbear Entertainment, have some special connection to Lyoko?!

Yumi approached the discovery and began inspecting it. "Looks older than the ones we've been using at the factory. Wonder if it works just the same!"

"Well, only one way to find out!" yelled Odd, and he marched up onto the disc. "Fire away, Jeremy!"

"Hold your horses, Odd," said Jeremy. "We're not even sure if this thing actually works. Besides, we don't have time to play around, we need to find-"

Without warning, a jolt of electricity erupted from the computer, enveloping Odd in its surges, and the blast flung the other Lyoko warriors backwards.

"ODD!" Aelita screamed, horrified.

Odd wanted to scream, to run, to do anything but just stand there as the machine sprung to life around him, but for some reason he found himself rooted to the spot. Then he looked down, and with a thrill of terror, he watched as first his feet, then his legs, then his torso were turned to code. The machine was dematerializing him!

The warriors were powerless to watch as their friend slowly faded away, until finally he had disappeared altogether, and the electrical whirring of the scanner had ceased. As if on cue, the computer on the table nearby came to life, with the eerily familiar start-up chime of an 80's-era Apple II.

The time, it read, was 12:00 AM.

…

Odd sat up, blinking. He took in his surroundings: above him, a bright blue sky, dotted with clouds, that seemingly stretched in all directions; below him, an ungainly blue platform. For a moment, he wondered if he was dead. Then he glanced down at his body, only to discover he was clad in the garb of his Lyoko self, and he remembered: he had been virtualized. But… where? This was clearly not Lyoko… so what could it be?

 _Must be some sort of Replika_ , Odd thought to himself, when the sudden sound of a voice from behind him derailed his train of thought.

"Come to interrupt our plans for revenge once again, have you?" it spoke, in a high, cold tone that made Odd's hair stand on end- more than usual, anyway.

Startled by the voice, Odd whipped around.

All he needed was a single glance at the gaunt, white-faced figure before him- that was motivation enough to turn and run.

"Trying to escape, are you?" With a giggle of macabre glee, the apparition reappeared out of thin air in front of Odd, its white pupils glaring down at him.

" _You can't…_ "

…

"Odd!" Aelita continued to yell as she sunk to the ground, pounding the scanner as if doing so long and hard enough was going to bring him back.

"It's hopeless, Aelita," Jeremy said solemnly. "Odd's gone. Probably permanently deleted. You saw it yourself, there's no way to recover him once he's data's been-"

"Don't say that, Jeremy! Can't you see Aelita's losing it?!" shrieked Yumi, as she attempted to comfort Aelita, who only continued to wail, kicking the scanner hard.

Suddenly, a window appeared on the monitor. "AIR SECTOR ONLINE- AWAITING DATA TRANSMISSION" it read, with a graphical display more than a little reminiscent of an old Atari game system.

"Wait, hold up! Guys, something's happening!" yelled Ulrich.

Jeremy dashed to the computer. "I don't believe it!" he gasped. "It's Odd! And it looks like he's in some kind of Replika on Lyoko!"

"So… that means this scanner really _is_ tied to Lyoko somehow?" asked Ulrich.

"Either that, or a very archaic Lyoko prototype of some sort," Jeremy concluded. "I still don't know how this older hardware works, though. I'm gonna need some time to figure it out before I can bring Odd back. For now, why don't the three of you look around this place and see if you can find a way out?"

"We're on it! Come on, Aelita," said Yumi, helping the pinkette to her feet. Ulrich led the way out of the computer area and back to the room where they had awoken, and after much stumbling around in the dark, they found what appeared to be a door. Yumi gave the door a firm shove, and it swung open with a loud creak. A sign on the door, illuminated in the faint glow of the hallway lights, read "SECURITY".

"Huh. So how did we end up in the Security Office?" wondered Ulrich aloud, when a noise at the end of the hall interrupted him.

Curiously, Aelita took two steps toward the noise- then she froze with fright, as the eerie shadow of a humanlike form was cast upon the wall. A human form, with a pair of odd protrusions above its head- two long, almost rabbit-like ears.

"Guys," Aelita whispered. "I don't think we're alone in here…"


End file.
